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PHOENIX — Almost 25 minutes after Phoenix Mercury star Diana Taurasi sent her best friend, Seattle Storm star Sue Bird, off into the sunset of their own personal rivalry, they were navigating the underbelly of the downtown Footprint Center on Friday night trying to figure out which way to go.
After they shared the postgame news conference — a first for both of them, which was a rare feat to find something neither had done after nearly two decades in the WNBA — they walked out, stage left and never left each other’s side. Flanked by cameras, security guards and executives, they walked down hallways. They turned corners. They backtracked. Then kept walking more. They laughed like old friends, the recent sting of a loss for Bird and the pride of one last triumph over her best friend for Taurasi not to be found. They figured out their plans for dinner.
People lingering after the game waved and took pictures. Others emerged out of closed doors to point and stare, their phones up the whole time.
That Taurasi scored 28 points or made six 3-pointers or that Bird scored just two points and had just five assists or that the Mercury won 94-78 didn’t seem to matter.
The day, the game, the atmosphere were about Taurasi and Bird playing each other for the last time in the regular season before Bird retires at the end of the season.
“I’m kinda glad it’s over,” Taurasi said after the game.
It was their 46th time facing each other, tying the WNBA record for the most meetings between two players. But to Bird, publicly, No. 46 wasn’t all that different from the first 45.
“There was no extra anything on this,” Bird said. “I think of this as another game in the story of our WNBA like, quote, unquote, rivalry. And I think of it more as just a celebration.
“I don’t think of it beyond that. Maybe this is one of those moments where in a couple years, you talk about the last one — although I have a feeling I’m not going to talk about this.”
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Source : espn
